Here's how the breakage occurs:
1. arch/x86/kernel/tsc_32.c:tsc_init() sees !cpu_has_tsc,
so bails and calls setup_clear_cpu_cap(X86_FEATURE_TSC).
2. include/asm-x86/cpufeature.h:setup_clear_cpu_cap(bit) clears
the bit in boot_cpu_data and sets it in cleared_cpu_caps
3. arch/x86/kernel/cpu/common.c:identify_cpu() XORs all caps
in with cleared_cpu_caps
HOWEVER, at this point c->x86_capability correctly has TSC
Off, cleared_cpu_caps has TSC On, so the XOR incorrectly
sets TSC to On in c->x86_capability, with disastrous results.
The real bug is that clearing bits with XOR only works if the
bits are known to be 1 prior to the XOR, and that's not true here.
A simple fix is to convert the XOR to AND-NOT instead. The following
patch does that, and allows my 486 to boot 2.6.25-rc kernels again.